Lorain police: Drunken driver tries to flee, gets stuck in fence

LORAIN — A car chase Saturday night on Oberlin Avenue lasted for all of a block when a driver trying to flee police found himself trapped by a parking lot fence, police said.

As a result, Daniel Berry, 29, of Lorain, was charged with failure to comply with a police order, driving under the influence, blood-alcohol content higher than 0.17 percent and aggravated menacing.

It all started when Lorain police were called to the Knights of Columbus about 9 p.m., where a bartender said Berry was starting fights and then announced he was going to his car to get a rifle, according to a police report.

But when Berry tried to drive behind the Ponderosa Steakhouse across the street, he ended up trapped in the lot by a fence, the report said.

Berry refused to get out of the Jeep, police said, and when additional officers arrived to assist, they found that Berry had no gun, but he did have a blood-alcohol level of 0.241 percent — well above the 0.08 percent limit at which the state deems a driver impaired, police said.